DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! Mindtangle is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

Mindtangle

Jump to original thread »
Author

Kiva vs. Microplace

Started by enguyen · 7 months ago

A new microfinance site just went live (Microplace) and it bears some similarity to Kiva, but with some important differences. I thought I’d outline those differences and point out that both offer an opportunity for ordinary people of privilege like ourselves to make a huge, sust ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • orange

    1 year ago

    thanks for the introduction and comparison, eric. i'm interested to hear how your experiences go, and will definitely keep these sites on my radar.
    reply
  • Dougie FRESH

    1 year ago

    Thanks for the in depth post!

    I've recently returned from my own charitable mission (tuxedotravels.com) and have to say it's AMAZING how much can be accomplished for a surprisingly tiny amount in some of these places.

    For example we bought fertilizer fofor an entire vietnamese village, shoes for an entire Kyrgyz orphanage and put a rehabilitated Nepalese sex-slave through school for a year - EACH FOR AROUND $100.

    Of course there's MANY people that need help, but many hands make light work and it's wonderful to see organizations like KIVA and Microplace taking off!

    Hooray for good people!
    reply
  • Eric E

    1 year ago

    Yes, its great to see both these sites getting deserved attention.

    Another important distinction between Kiva.org and MicroPlace.org is that MicroPlace says it pays interest. I wish I new more about this, e.g. how much, but a very quick search of their site later, and I'm still left wondering. I must have missed something.

    Does anyone know more about this?
    reply
  • enguyen

    1 year ago

    Yes, that's definitely a difference between the two. Kiva is financially able to give interest to its investors; it's the regulatory hurdles that they were unwilling to best that prevented them from doing that. Microplace wwas able to do it.

    As for the interest rates, you can see them on the right side of the listings for each individual project. They vary in term and rate, between 2 and 3 years and 1.5% and 3%, from what I've seen.
    reply

Add New Comment

Returning? Login